Words to Live By

Posted: 09/28/2001

All I Really Need to Know I Learned In Kindergarten

Copyright 1988 Robert Fulghum
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw some and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

The Storyteller's Creed

Copyright 1988 Robert Fulghum
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge.
That myth is more potent than history.
That dreams are more powerful than facts.
That hope always triumphs over experience.
That laughter is the only cure for grief.
And I believe that love is stronger than death.

The Fifth Discipline

Copyright Peter Senge
The committed person brings an energy, passion, and excitement that cannot be generated if you are only compliant, even genuinely compliant.
The committed person doesn't play by the rules of the game. He is responsible for the game.
If the rules of the game stand in the way of achieving the vision, he will find ways to change the rules.
A group of people truly committed to a common vision is an awesome force.
They can accomplish the seemingly impossible.

St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of Your Peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow Love; Where there is injury, Pardon; Where there is doubt, Faith; Where there is despair, Hope; Where there is darkness, Light; And Where there is sadness, Joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not So much seek to be consoled, as to Console; To be understood as to Understand; To be loved as to Love; For it is in Giving that we recieve; It is in Pardoning that we are pardoned; It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

The Seven Habits

Stephen R. Covey
  1. Be Proactive
  2. Begin with the end in mind
  3. Put first things first
  4. Think win/win
  5. Seek first to understand, then be understood
  6. Synergize
  7. Sharpen the saw

The Laws of Data Smog

David Shenk
  1. Information, once rare and cherished like caviar, is now plentiful and taken for granted like potatoes.
  2. Silicon circuits evolve much more quickly than human genes.
  3. Computers are neither human nor humane.
  4. Putting a computer in every classroom is like putting an electric power plant in every home.
  5. What they sell is not information technology, but information anxiety.
  6. Too many experts spoil the clarity.
  7. All high-stim roads lead to Times Square.
  8. Birds of a feather flock virtually together.
  9. The electronic town hall allows for speedy communication and bad decision-making.
  10. Equifax is watching.
  11. Beware stories that dissolve all complexity.
  12. On the information highway, most roads bypass journalists.
  13. Cyberspace is Republican.